Well, it’s getting interesting out there. As COVID-19 is spreading rapidly across the U.S. and the stock market is eating itself alive, a lot of artists, including me, are standing back in shock.

For many, we are just beginning to get our feet under us again in a serious way following the financial debacle of 2008. Art collectors were again emerging and getting interested in taking a risk on art again. Art, unfortunately, is the first thing to go off the purchasing list when money gets tight. When you have only a few bucks to spare, you buy a car, or build an addition onto your house, or put new carpet in the bedroom, or buy a new set of pots and pans, or maybe invest in the stock market. Most folks don’t buy art. Art comes last in most cases.

I would propose that folks (especially folks of means) might consider investing in art rather than the stock market. It’s a long term investment in the economy although, in all honesty, perhaps not your net worth. I don’t know an artist who isn’t also a collector of art even if their collection is of their own work. We admire and collect each other’s work at a higher rate than non-artists. And in creating our own work we support a very diverse art supply industry. I guess that’s how Reagan’s trickle down is supposed to work. The rich buy from the creators and the artists and the creators and artists buy from the manufacturers who pay their employees to make the goods and then take their paychecks and spread it around by buying groceries and carpet for their bedrooms. And on some occasion, buy art.

Unfortunately, in reality, at times when the most people need the most financial support, jobs, and sales; the money stops trickling down. Those with the most grip tighter and tighter to what they have and stop sharing it down the line.

Taking a deep breath….

Okay, so now, we are experiencing this very bizarre, not seen since the Dark Ages, plague that is going to cause a lot of health issues and death for a lot of people. I understand the economic contraction from this. In a way, as a 60-year-old person with a 69-year-old spouse in a high risk group, I deeply respect what has to happen for the next several months. I also respect the fact that most of the wealthier people in this country are in the same, if not older, age bracket and really are not in a position to be out buying new clothes, new cars and new art. Our governors in our various states are taking some of those decisions out of our hands by ordering the closure of restaurants, many retail stores (which includes art galleries), and many places that we elders like to visit, like parks and museums. We are going to get mighty bored shortly.

Simplistically, I can hope the massive Wall Street sell off means that there are a lot of folks out there with money burning holes in their pockets. But I’m thinking most of the folks that bailed, have some tendency toward frugality and are waiting and watching to see what happens next. I’m sort of hoping they get bored in the next month or two and turn more to the internet to get their spending fixes on.

So, with my husband’s help, we are going to connect my art web page to my PayPal account and see if we might find a few new collectors out there who would still like to invest in the economy and find something new to hang on their walls.

Here is the link to my website. Check back often as I will continue to paint and soon (this week, I hope) will have a way on the site for visitors to just click a button to make a purchase. In the meantime, feel free to send me an email, a comment here or find me on Facebook.

Tomorrow I will post about the reception at the show you guys had been hearing about for months. I apologize for COVID19 hit the US that same week and I went into shut down mode immediately after. I was very happy with how it went and I’ll let you know more tomorrow about the gallery.